Terraforming Mars Impossible Due To The Sun?

It looks like humanities hope of turning Mars into a second Earth may never translate into reality thanks in part to the red planet’s lack of a magnetic field.

Scientists have discovered that our Sun’s solar radiation may thwart all attempts at increasing the atmospheric pressure of the crimson world, which means we may never get the chance of witnessing a green Mars, let alone a blue one.

(Discovery News) Scientists have identified a sort of double-whammy solar super wave that is responsible for blowing away air from Mars and keeping its atmosphere thin, frigid and downright inhospitable for any possible future travelers.

The waves happen when one stream of solar wind is overrun and amped up by another, faster gale of solar particles. That creates a flying traffic jam of particles that slam into Mars as one large pulse. […]

When Edberg and his colleagues compared these events at Mars to the flow of heavier atoms blowing past Mars Express, they discovered that fully a third of Martian air loss happens during the 15 percent of the time when doubled-up solar wind pulses hit the planet.

Although this means that Mars may never become a second eden (unless we can create a global magnetic field), it does not mean that humanity will never settle the planet en mass.

Socialverse:

Since it is far easier to achieve a small area of paraterraformation, this will be the first type of terraforming of Mars. Paraterraformation can easily be scaled until eventually you have a worldhouse. So, why is there so much more discussion about terraforming than paraterraforming?

http://weirdsciences.net bruceleeeowe

The most complex thing with colonization of mars is that it is having very low magnetic field..you remember solar storm could devast terraformed martian colonies.
Can we exchange links? I have added yours.

http://www.colonyworlds.com Darnell

Hey Bruce,

Sure, I'll add you to the side bar!

As far as the magnetic field goes, that will probably be the biggest hindrance to a Martian settlement.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000158170340 Scott Ripley

Of all the potential engineering problems of Terra forming Mars this is the simplest to solve, albeit a huge construction project, a fleet of several hundred specialized tunnel boring machines pay out cable in the tunnels they cut to make the coils of the planetary electromagnet below the surface. Power it with nuclear reactors. You can even add giant building sized
capacitors in parallel to absorb the extra energy transmitted to the
field by geomagnetic storms and store it to reinforce the field. Since
the core or Mars is most likely solid iron, you get the extra benefit of
magnetizing the core over time to act as a supplement to the artificial
field and a back up when it needs maintenance.

Owain Arlan Wilcox

At that length and cost, it might be easier just to do what AI below you suggested.

Jonny Gouda

I’ve always wondered why we see so many documentary shows and articles that talk about terraforming Mars when it doesn’t have a magnetic field. Shows like NOVA, Through the Wormhole and a lot of other science shows have covered the terraforming topic and they’ve also covered the lack of a magnetic field on Mars – but on different episodes. They can’t put 2 and 2 together? lol. Oh well, I’m glad I wasn’t out in left field. I’m an amateur astronomer, for Pete’s sake!

TVG

It’s still much better than being in orbit, having a planet underneath to block half of the radiation that you would otherwise get if you were away from the planet or in orbit. Mars is shielding. Even at the surface, water can be stored in creative ways that add shielding. Expect design to use natural materials and situations that protect from radiation. Cliff dwellings, anyone?

Al

Instead of building Mars’ atmosphere up, why not extend it down? Use a big nuke to make a hole just below the surface, like an underground nuclear test. Then collapse the roof in. As the CO2 fills the hole, it applies more pressure to the gas below, and so the density rises exponentially with depth. Go down a few kilometers, the pressure will be enough to allow liquid fresh water to exist, and the dense CO2 will keep it warm and protect from radiation. Plants could live there. Cover the plants with thin transparent plastic and collect the oxygen.

Owain Arlan Wilcox

What a refreshingly unique idea. (Not being sarcastic, I’ve never heard or thought of this).

Very interesting.

Owain Arlan Wilcox

I am of the opinion that terraforming takes too much work and wouldn’t have been worth it, with Mars at least, even if it DID have a magnetic field. Easier just to build biospheres and such. Mining the natural resources outside them for use to fund this colonization. Anything else is a large cost, for what? Especially if it involves trying to find complicated ways to do something where it clearly isn’t meant to be done. Surely, there are better planets and methods to try terraforming on first, to perfect it, before we try doing so on complicated/impossible planets like Mars?